Today in Cold War History
1962 – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing.”
1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree in Washington, D.C., on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast – A joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.(prisoners were moved)
1971 – Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
1973: Guam:The Pentagon brought back more than 100 B52 bombers to the United States. The majority of these were returned to their original nuclear striking zone prior to the U.S. bombing of Indochina.
1974 – The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people. The Birmingham Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime but subsequently acquitted.
1974: Congress passes the “Freedom Of Information Act” passed over Gerald Fords Veto allowing for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government.
1979: An attack on the American embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan by a mob who had been incited after listening to a radio report from the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, saying Americans were behind the occupation of Islam’s holiest site, the Great Mosque in Mecca, leaves the Embassy burned to the ground killing a US marine.
1985: The result of communications between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev when they met was an agreement to speed up nuclear arms reduction negotiations. There was some disagreement, however, regarding Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
1986: National Security Council staff member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, begin shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities over the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to a rebel Nicaraguan group.

My goal with this blog is to offend everyone in the world at least once with my words… so no one has a reason to have a heightened sense of themselves. We are all ignorant, we are all found wanting, we are all bad people sometimes.